canada kara no tegami!
je_ficgames: 9,000 words and I still haven't reached the halfway mark in my storyline so far. I might if I didn't keep veering off on these weird plot deviations...;____;
That being said, I think my eyes are going to dribble out of my head any moment now, because aside from writing about 3,000 words on the above, I also wrote about 2,700 words for my Aboriginal Ed. essay, 1,500 words on another fic and about 2,000 words worth of mini-ficlets from my attempt at the fic request meme:
Nino had had better plans for his Saturday off (namely, sleep and play video games) but Aiba had asked for his help and well, it couldn't possibly take all day to pick out a puppy, could it?
"I didn't think you could even had pets in your building." Nino scratched Domyouji-chan ("Jun will kill you, you know." "I know." "...do it.") behind the ears when she whined. "And won't she be lonely while you're working all day?"
Aiba shrugged, absorbed in picking out the perfect water dish. "Nah, it's fine. I've been home pretty early, lately. I thought it would be nice to have a puppy around again."
"Huh - eurgh!" Domyouji-chan slurped at Nino's nose enthusiastically and Nino almost dropped the puppy. "Gross."
"I think the rainbow dish will be fine," Aiba says decisively.
*
"You'd better be buying me dinner," Nino groused, as they stumbled into Aiba's apartment a couple of hours later. He'd had his face licked within an inch of his life, Domyouji-chan had almost left a puddle in the backseat of his Pajero and Nino had been temporarily swarmed by junior high school girls cooing over the puppy in his arms when Aiba had wandered off to look at collars.
Aiba deposited the box with all of Domyouji-chan's supplies on the floor beside his kitchen table. "I'll make something, if you want. Or we can order in - I want to spend tonight at home, to help Domyouji-chan settle in."
He tickled the puppy behind the ears, giggling at her happy, chuffing little barks. "Who's my little DoS, yessums?"
Nino sighed, carefully handing over the puppy into Aiba's arms. "I'll cook. You get her set up."
Aiba grinned at him, kissing him lightly on the lips. "Thank you."
Nino cupped the back of Aiba's head, fingers sliding through his hair and kissing him hard, sighing into Aiba's open mouth as Aiba's tongue traced Nino's bottom lip. Domyouji-chan barked, still cradled in Aiba's arms and they broke apart.
Aiba's eyes were a little glazed over, his smile wide and goofy. "Uh - " he gestured vaguely in the direction of the couch, "You wanna?"
"Moron," Nino sighed, sauntering into the kitchen, "Not in front of the puppy."
When you have a group of five girls, you're guaranteed a veritable medley of emotional states on any given day. It's always remarked upon with a sort of bewildered awe in interviews and on talk shows that they've never fought as a group.
This is mostly true. There are the little blow-ups, the day-to-day realities of seeing the same people every day, for hours on end and in often in highly stressful situations. The little quirks start to bite under your skin a bit.
Masaki, for example, has this habit of clicking her compact shut with a click that resounds around the entire dressing room. It's not like she's done it often today, or particularly louder than usual. Kazuko had noticed Yuki was a bit edgy already, as they all slumped back into the dressing room to break between filming their variety show and the meeting for their upcoming concert. It's clear in the set of her shoulders under her fitted, stylish blouse, in the shake in her voice when she slams down her newspaper on the coffee table just a beat after the click of Aiba's compact snicking shut.
"For fuck's sake, Masaki, could you stop being loud? I wish you would just shut up sometimes." Yuki slams the dressing room behind her on the way out into the hallway.
There's a somewhat tenuous silence, with a few shivery hiccups on Masaki's part. Kazuko exchanges a glance with Jun. Jun's already slid onto the couch next to Masaki, curling an arm around her waist before Aiba starts to cry in earnest.
"I'll -" Kazuko says, quietly, but Tomo tugs on her hand, pulling her towards the door.
"We both will," Tomo tells her, softly but strongly. She ushers Kazuko out into the hallway.
Captain is smart like that, Kazuko thinks, as they both wind through the hallways, following the part of Hurricane Yuki through a trail of bewildered and fearful staff members. She knows that Jun turns into a big, oozy pillow when she knows that no one else is looking, especially when Masaki is involved. Jun can take care of Masaki and if anything else, Tomo can stop Kazuko from giving Yuki a good kick in the ass.
Kazuko knows they've hit pay dirt when they find a couple of Juniors huddled outside the washroom, throwing terrified glances at the door. One is crying and her friend, extremely petite with short black hair attractively cut around her ears is patting her on the shoulder. "Senpai!" she says, seeing Kazuko and Tomo over her friend's shoulder. She looks relieved.
Tomo pats her awkwardly on the shoulder as they pass by. "We'll take care of it."
The junior kind of melts under Tomo's smile and Kazuko frowns. That Yuuri-chan had been after Tomo since the day she joined the company. Kazuko didn't like it one bit.
"Yuki?" Tomo calls softly, pushing open the door of the bathroom. "Yuu-chan?"
There's a loud, undignified snuffle from one of the stalls. Kazuko rolls her eyes and walks across the washroom, dropping to her hands and knees (the wardrobe staff are going to hate her for this one, she didn't have time to change back into her own clothes) to crawl under the door.
Yuki is perched on the toilet tank, red-eyed and puffy-faced. She pouts at Kazuko, who gives her an exasperated look in turn before unlocking the stall door so Tomo could squeeze inside too.
There's silence for a minute, as Yuki glares waterily, wearily at them and Tomo reaches out, gently stroking her fingers through Yuki's hair, brushing her hand against Yuki's cheek with a sweet softness that makes Yuki's face screw up against a fresh wave of tears.
"That was pretty harsh," Tomo says softly, still petting Yuki's hair lightly. "You really hurt Aiba-chan."
"I k-know," Yuki says thickly, barely a whisper as the words choke up in her throat with all the tears.
Kazuko leans back against the wall of the stall, folding her arms across her chest and watching Yuki lean her head into Tomo's touch, expression miserable. She spent half the walk down here furious at Yuki for being mean to Masaki, but she couldn't stay mad when Yuki was clearly so frustrated and hurt and angry at herself.
"If there's anything wrong," Kazuko says finally. "Anything, you know you have us. You can talk to us about anything." She reaches out, rubbing Yuki's knee reassuringly. "Right?"
Yuki nods, covering Kazuko's hand with her own and squeezing slightly. "I really a-am s-sorry - sorry," she says, through her tears. "It's just...I haven't slept more than three hours in two days, and I've got a mid-term tomorrow and I feel so fat lately and I h-h-h-hate being called a sports loser."
Kazuko leans forward, smoothing Yuki's bangs out of the way and dropping a kiss on her forehead, lingering for a second. "You big idiot," she mutters against Yuki's warm skin. "Trying to take on too much."
Tomo drapes her arm around Yuki's shaking shoulders, massaging her neck gently with one hand. "All you need to do is ask us." Almost as an afterthought, she adds: "And you're not fat, you've just gone up a cup size, I think. Wardrobe keeps trying to stuff you into these tight shirts."
Yuki snuffles. "Really?" She peers down at her own chest dubiously. "Captain does always notice these things."
Kazuko is indignant. "Again?"
Tomo smiles wanly at Kazuko. "Don't get so uptight. You're fighting a losing battle."
Kazuko's mouth twists into a half-frown, but Yuki giggles, an actual sweet laugh and Tomo gives Kazuko a crooked, bright smile, like we did it.
"First off," Tomo instructs, helping Yuki climb down from the tank. "Ramen. Lots of ramen to get us through the rest of this stupidly long day."
Kazuko makes a mental note to ask their manager to re-arrange their solo interviews so that Yuki can go last, giving her maybe a few hours for a quick nap and some studying time.
"Let's go pick up Masaki and Jun," Tomo steers Yuki out of the bathroom with a firm hand on her lower back. "I bet Masaki would like some ramen, right?" Yuki gives a very small nod and Kazuko sidles up beside her, wrapping her own arm around her waist from the other side, brushing against Tomo's.
They never really fought, Kazuko reflects, not in that painful, splintering way that could never really be repaired - and that was because they all pulled together tightly, because no one was left alone - because they were Arashi, and that wasn't just enough - it was everything.
Sho was a pretty easygoing guy when it came to most things - and particularly when it came to Aiba. Which was useful because really, when it came to Aiba, you needed patience, a good sense of humour (and Sho kept telling Jun that all those whacks across the head couldn't possibly be improving Aiba's sense in any way) and an acceptance of things that didn't quite always make sense.
However, waking up handcuffed to the headboard of the bed in his hotel room, shirtless (his own doing, not Aiba, it had been stiflingly hot in the room the night before and Sho had stripped down to his underwear before climbing into bed) with Aiba heavy on his thighs would probably try the patience of a saint. Aiba looked entirely too pleased with himself and Sho wasn't quite awake enough to process the entire thing, but he was pretty sure that it wasn't a dream.
Being told that Nino leant them to Aiba doesn't help matters either.
"I'm going to kill you," Sho warned, his voice a little breathless as Aiba shifts a little further down, nuzzling his cheek against the front of Sho's boxers, teasing at the sensitive skin of his inner thigh. He arched upwards, dazed and hot under Aiba's touch. This whole thing just really wasn't fair.
Aiba hummed, the vibration going straight through to Sho's cock. "That so?" He slid his hand upwards with a wicked grin, pressing against Sho's growing hardness. "Go on, then. Try it."
Sho tested the give of the handcuffs, his wrists straining before he let his head flop back down against the pillows. He glared down at Aiba, who was making no efforts to hide his giggles. "Seriously, you're such an idiot."
"Don't be such a baby." Aiba pushed himself back up the length of Sho's body, sucking lightly at Sho's bottom lip. "This is going to be fun, I promise."
"Selfish," Sho muttered. He wraps one of his legs halfway around Aiba's hip, trying to get him to press closer. Aiba has his hands braced on either side of Sho's head, keeping his body floating tantalizingly just inches from Sho's bare skin.
Aiba just laughs at him again, tracing one hand down Sho's chest, brushing teasingly over Sho's left nipple. "I'd be nice if I were you, Sho-chan. Your ticklish spots are wide open."
"Stop teasing me." Sho closed his eyes as Aiba drifted southwards again, trailing small kisses down Sho's stomach, pausing to tease Sho's piercing with his tongue. He could feel Aiba's fingers slip under the waistband of his boxers and he arched his hips, almost moaning as Aiba slid them down, hands moving slowly over his overheated skin.
Sho opened his eyes again, barely in time to see Aiba carefully wrap one hand around Sho's erection, licking at the tip experimentally.
Sho made a completely embarrassing gasping noise, tugging at the cuffs tying his hands behind his head until they clinked against each other, frustrated. Aiba's driving him crazy, smoothing his fingers all over Sho's skin lazily, like he knows that he has all the time in the world and he wants out of these cuffs, so he can pin Aiba down and - god, just touch him all over.
Aiba is holding his hips down now, his own legs tangling between Sho's. He licks a stripe up the underside of Sho's cock and moves his hand, his eyes fixed on Sho's.
"You might as well just enjoy it," Aiba advises him, although Sho isn't pay much attention. Aiba's warm breath on his cock, his lips just brushing the tip and tongue teasing across the slit is kind of all that his brain can cope with at the moment.
"Won't - ah - " Aiba wraps his mouth Sho's cock, his mouth hot and slick. He moves his tongue and sucks hard and Sho tries to breathe again before continuing. "Won't Nino want his handcuffs back soon?"
Aiba pulled back a little, letting Sho's length slide out of his mouth. "I doubt it," he said thoughtfully, his lips wet and full, "I think he forgot the key back at home."
Holding out until next weekend. Three days of absolutely, glorious, family-free freedom. *____*